1-year-old child Kohen Wiley was killed by police in Senatobia, Mississippi, on June 14 after officers responded to an alleged shoplifting incident involving a box of diapers at a local Walmart.
Wiley was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after an officer fired into a car carrying his mother, a family friend, and the child. The family friend remains in critical condition.
Police claim they attempted to stop two adult suspects and a juvenile who were leaving the parking lot after allegedly stealing a box of diapers. According to police, the vehicle drove toward officers before one officer fired into the car.
The officer who killed Wiley has been placed on administrative leave with pay while state authorities investigate the shooting.
“They wouldn’t even put him on leave without pay. They wanted to put him on leave; they put him on leave with pay. They refused to put him on leave without pay,” one community member told The Worker.
Wiley’s family is demanding answers and has retained civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump to represent them.
In a statement on behalf of the family, Crump said, “Kohen Wiley was a baby. His mother, who has not been charged with any crime, says she was trying to communicate to officers that there was a baby in the car. They fired anyway, leading to the death of an innocent one-year-old. We intend to seek justice for baby Kohen and the life that was stolen from him.”
Wiley’s killing has sparked outrage in the residents of Senatobia. In the small Mississippi town of roughly 8,500 people, around 200 residents gathered outside Town Hall during a municipal meeting to demand the officer’s arrest and termination on June 16.
Later that day, protesters marched throughout Senatobia to the Walmart parking lot where Wiley was killed. Sheriff’s deputies wearing gas masks deployed tear gas against the crowd in an effort to disperse demonstrators. Journalists covering the protest were also affected by the tear gas. Law enforcement maintained a heavy presence in the area for hours afterward.
Speaking to The Worker, a protester recalled the police response: “It was a really big crowd, and somebody from the back threw a water bottle. And without warning. They just started… They just fired it off. If you’ve seen any of the news casters, all of them got teargassed too.”
Protests demanding accountability have continued throughout the week.
The Senatobia Police Department (SPD) has a recent history of excessive force and recklessness. In 2025, body-camera footage showed SPD officers using excessive force against a Black man during a dispute over a handicap parking space at the same Walmart where Kohen Wiley was killed. In 2024, the department drew widespread criticism after body-camera footage of a reckless arrest at a resident’s home became public.
Residents also expressed anger at a broader pattern of officers who are accused of misconduct moving between departments with no accountability.
One reside member told The Worker that “we want, we want them just to quit accepting all the racist cops that are fired from other places, and they come, what they do is, they leave one place and jump to the next county and get a job. To continue the same behavior. This is the next big town from DeSoto. All the dirty cops from DeSoto end up here,”
“We need justice” a community member told The Worker, “We need accountability. The cop needs to be fired. The cops need to go.”
Image: Kohen Wiley. Credit: Mississippi Free Press.
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